If Hitchcock/Truffaut is the gold standard of the penetrating director-on-director interview book — think of the brain-trust there, with the man who made the absolutely perfect Jules et Jim picking the brain of the man who made the absolutely perfect Psycho — then This Is Orson Welles is clearly the silver standard.
At all times throughout the book Orson Welles seems intent on dispelling all myths about him and come across as just a humble guy struggling along in the service of his art and for the most part it works. And even though he became a punch line for appearing in wine commercials later in life, there’s something truly endearing about a man who was willing to use every last dollar he had to make his own films and didn’t care where he got the dollars from and the dreck he had to appear in to get it. If nothing else, you have to respect his dedication.
